Tom Riley On Capaldi’s Doctor: “Extraordinary”

Everyone knows just how tight the BBC is trying to keep any details about the new series of Doctor Who and (filming videos on YouTube not withstanding) they seem to be doing a decent job of it on the whole. But one star has risked everything (well, some hair) to slip out a brief word about the show.

Tom Riley, best known for his part in DaVinci’s Demons, is in the Mark Gatiss penned episode three of the new series, currently going by the title Robots of Sherwood, in which he plays Robin Hood and he managed to say a few words about working on the show during an interview for access Hollywood.

“they’ve taken a vial of blood and a lock of my hair for a voodoo doll if I say too much”

Ladies around the world can squee with delight at the news that, yes, Riley does get his shirt off. But other than that there were no bombshells being dropped, clearly the threat of Moffat’s voodoo powers are too intimidating. The guest star did however say how much he enjoyed being part of the show and that his episode was “great fun” and Capaldi is going to be “extraordinary”.

Looking at the clip (catch it above, skip to 1:31 to get to the Doctor Who stuff) it’s this last snippet that catches the attention, that wry little smile after he describes Capaldi’s Doctor as extraordinary and his episode as great fun, clearly there is more to this than we know about and Tom seems bursting to say more but cant. What can we speculate from this?

Seeing as Robin Hood is a fictional character could we see him turn out to be one of the robots of the title? Possibly an escapee from the theme park in Series 7, or perhaps the episode take place in a Westworld-style park, but the Doctor doesn’t know it (in a similar style to the Eighth Doctor novel Earthworld). Here’s another possibility: the events of the episode will erase Robin from history leaving only tales of his adventures to build into myths?

Maybe I spend too much time drinking coffee and speculating about future episodes, but what do you think? Have you seen any of the shooting footage, do you think there is some twist in the tale, what are your thoughts on topless Tom or do you have a word other than extraordinary to sum up your thoughts about Capaldi’s Doctor? Speak openly and freely below and tell us your views.